Comment System Comparison
Written on November 18th, 2008 by Graham
A few days ago we were talking about Automattic’s recent acquisition of IntenseDebate, and I mentioned that we would be posting a more comprehensive review of the service.
Instead of doing a comprehensive review of IntenseDebate alone, I figured I would compare them against a system many of you are familiar with, SezWho.
Comment Interface:
Here are screen shots from the IntenseDebate comment interface and then the SezWho comment interface respectively.
vs SezWho:
As you can see, for both of these, I am logged in. Immediately, you’ll notice that both SezWho and IntenseDebate utilize a thumbs-up, thumbs-down system to rate comments. Intense debate will give you the number of votes, with it fluctuating with each thumbs up and thumbs down, while SezWho gives you an aggregate rating on a scale of 1 to 5, averaging ups as 5s and downs as 0s. Both systems use threaded comments.
It’s worth noting that IntenseDebate has their own comment template and layout, whereas SezWho integrates with your existing layout because it’s just working alongside your wordpress installation.
Author/Post
One thing I like about SezWho that IntenseDebate doesn’t do is it syncs with the author. So, if I write a post on the Entrecard Blog like this one, you can hover over my name at the top of the post and see my recent comments and other posts I’ve written. You can also rate this post at the bottom. Intense Debate does not allow you to rate the posts themselves or link an authors name to their profile.
Profile
The profile on Intense Debate is clean and easy to use. It shows who’s comments I’m following (currently no one), and recent visitors to my profile. It also lists my comments (currently none).
My SezWho profile lists not only my comments, but articles I’ve written as well. I really don’t understand why Wordpress didn’t add any author integration. A clean layout here too, but SezWho does not include commenters I am following.
Logged in Dashboard
The logged in Dashboard on IntenseDebate is nice. It shows you some quick stats and lets you backup your blog’s comments in XML format with a click.
Your logged in Dashboard with SezWho doesn’t give you any stats other than your SezWho score, but you can select a blog easily enough and view the statistics on it. And the SezWho statistics are pretty good, including commenters generating the most page views, profile views, and lots of other goodies. But the link to the statistics can be hard to spot:
Entrecard Integration
At this time, only SezWho is configurable to receive Entrecard Credits when you comment on other’s posts.
Reply by Email
A feature that IntenseDebate boasts but that SezWho has yet to release is the ability to reply to your comments via email. This means if someone comments on your blog, you’ll be notified by email, and you can then reply. Very handy if you are an iphone email junky like me, as email is much quicker to load and send on a mobile device than loading the entire blog to check the comments and respond.
Overall thoughts
Both systems are sleek, handy, and easy to install on your blog. At this point it’s really a matter of preference because essentially they do the same thing, aggregate your comments. SezWho will also aggregate your posts that you author, and IntenseDebate will let you reply by email. This is mostly what it all boils down to. Although, I do know that the folks at SezWho are cooking up some great next-gen features, and the guys at Automattic no doubt are doing the same. Sooner or later, within a few years time, I am sure that there will be one standard commenter profile platform that is endorsed by nearly everyone. Until we reach that day, the war wages on between the blog comment applications.
November 18th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I’ve been impressed with DISQUS. They have the email thing too and do pretty much everything both of those do.
November 18th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I just wish I could get the sez who coments work. or maky be I should jusyt have sez who deleted and start all ove again.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:08 am
I think SezWho alone will do for the commenting rating services. Even, with SezWho ranking systems, not all gives ranking to the comments.
November 19th, 2008 at 12:13 am
My comments are do follow keyword and comment luv and I’m a big fan of Andy Bailey’s from comment luv if your not HIP you cheating yourself.
Andy’s also a cool down to earth talented young cat from London who has a cool site with a lot of LUV for any blogger.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/commentluv/
November 19th, 2008 at 12:14 am
I like Sez Who the best wonder when there next update will be !
November 19th, 2008 at 9:22 am
I’ve always liked Sezwho better. Could you elaborate on how we get credits by commenting on Sezwho enabled blogs?
November 19th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Right now, SEZ is the winner. I am using it, and sure, I am loving it!
November 19th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Nathan,
There are instructions on your Entrecard dashboard. Essentially, every time you leave a comment that gets rated a thumbs up, you’ll get a credit. It is limited to once per blog per day though, and may take a day for the system to sync and pay you. Check out our help section for more information!
November 21st, 2008 at 2:43 am
I would have to agree with bmcelhinny. Disqus, especially running multiply blogs.
November 21st, 2008 at 11:53 am
I’m just happy that SezWho introduced thumbs-up thumbs-down. This was a very important change that they made and I have to hand it to them, it’s becoming more sleek and useful with each release. They really do listen to all the feedback they get.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Don’t get wrong, I love the SezWho platform but whenever I comment on blogs that has a SezWho – I am not usually recognized.
November 21st, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Have you made sure that all your ids are registered? You have to register at a bare minimum, your Google profile and all the URLs that you use when entering on Wordpress blogs.
November 23rd, 2008 at 12:11 am
Thanks for the comparison. I think I will stick with sezwho as it has the entrecard integration.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
This is Ravi K from SezWho. Thanks everybody for the feedback.
Replying specifically to Mike Golch (Comment # 2):
1) Comments left by others on your blog does not get recorded with SezWho: Since you don’t have SezWho script embedded in your HTML/Javascript section, any comment left on you blog does not get posted to Sezwho. For instructions, refer to http://sezwho.com/install_bg.php
2) Comments created by you on other’s blogs are not recorded by SezWho: All your comments are being recorded properly with SezWho. But since you have created three different accounts with SezWho for your three different emails, any content you create using one email does not get associated with the other two emails. For e.g. the comment you made here using your gmail email does not show in your profile up at http://support.sezwho.com/support/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=5727 , where you have commented using your aol email. Hence it would be a good idea to merge all the three accounts, which we can do if requested by you.
June 19th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
I like Disqus the most, easy to install and use, it also make my blogs more beautiful, my visitors are love it too.